Wormwood health benefits
WORMWOOD, COMMON
Absinthium (Artemisia absinthium LINN.)
Botanical: Artemisia absinthium (LINN.)Family: N.O. Compositae
---Synonym---Green Ginger. ---Part Used---Whole Herb. ---Habitat---Europe, Siberia, and United States of America.
Wormwood was originally used as a remedy for ailments like headache, dysentery and intestinal worms but in early 18th century, it became even more widely used when French Doctor Pierre Ordinaire1 created a concoction with it as the main ingredient. The drink was later on named Absinthe.
Though Absinthe became an instant hit, in 1915, its production was banned because Wormwood was reported to have hallucinogenic effects when mixed with alcohol. The French government thought that it was driving drinkers to madness. It was also reported to have caused Vincent Van Gogh’s mental illness.
Its production only became legal again just recently when several modern tests claimed that the accusations n 1915 are not true. The tests indicate that even when drank in large quantities, the most that it could do is making the drinker really drunk, but nothing close to being insane. And because Wormwood has a lot of medicinal benefits, its usage became widespread again.
-Description---The root is perennial, and from it arise branched, firm, leafy stems, sometimes almost woody at the base. The flowering stem is 2 to 2 1/2 feet high and whitish, being closely covered with fine silky hairs. The leaves, which are also whitish on both sides from the same reason, are about 3 inches long by 1 1/2 broad, cut into deeply and repeatedly, with the segments being narrow (linear) and blunt. The leaf-stalks are slightly winged at the margin. The small, nearly globular flower heads are arranged in an erect, leafy panicle, the leaves on the flower-stalks being reduced to three, or even one linear segment, and the little flowers themselves being pendulous and of a greenish-yellow tint. They bloom from July to October. The ripe fruits are not crowned by a tuft of hairs, or pappus, as in the majority of the Compositae family.
The leaves and flowers are very bitter, with a characteristic odor, resembling that of thujone. The root has a warm and aromatic taste.
---Cultivation---Wormwood likes a shady situation, and is easily propagated by division of roots in the autumn, by cuttings, or by seeds sown in the autumn soon after they are ripe. No further care is needed than to keep free from weeds. Plant about 2 feet apart each way.
Parts Used---The whole herb - leaves and tops - gathered in July and August, when the plant is in flower and dried.
Collect only on a dry day, after the sun has dried off the dew. Cut off the upper green portion and reject the lower parts of the stems, together with any discolored or insect-eaten leaves. Tie loosely in bunches of uniform size and length, about six stalks to a bunch, and spread out in shape of a fan, so that the air can get to all parts. Hang over strings, in the open, on a fine, sunny, warm day, but in half-shade, otherwise the leaves will become tinder; the drying must not be done in full sunlight, or the aromatic properties will be partly lost. Aromatic herbs should be dried at a temperature of about 70 degrees. If no sun is available, the bunches may be hung over strings in a covered shed, or disused greenhouse, or in a sunny warm attic, provided there is ample ventilation, so that the moist heated air may escape. The room may also be heated with a coke or anthracite stove, care being taken that the window is kept open during the day. If after some days the leaves are crisp and the stalks still damp, hang the bunches over a stove, when the stalks will quickly finish drying. Uniformity in size in the bunches is important, as it facilitates packing. When the drying process is completed, pack away at once in airtight boxes, as otherwise the herbs will absorb about 12 per cent moisture from the air. If sold to the wholesale druggists in powdered form, rub through a sieve as soon as thoroughly dry, before the bunches have had time to absorb any moisture, and pack in tins or bottles at once.
---Constituents---The chief constituent is a volatile oil, of which the herb yields in distillation from 0.5 to 1.0 per cent. It is usually dark green, or sometimes blue in color, and has a strong odor and bitter, acrid taste. The oil contains thujone (absinthol or tenacetone), thujyl alcohol (both free and combined with acetic, isovalerianic, succine and malic acids), cadinene, phellandrene and pinene. The herb also contains the bitter glucoside absinthin, absinthic acid, together with tannin, resin, starch, nitrate of potash and other salts.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---Tonic, stomachic, febrifuge, anthelmintic.
A nerve tonic, particularly helpful against the falling sickness and for flatulence. It is a good remedy for enfeebled digestion and debility.
Medicinal Benefits
Wormwood may be used as a relaxant. With the right dosage, it can stimulate the brain to create a peaceful and calming feeling. Wormwood can also be used as a light anesthetic. It is commonly used to give relief to menstrual cramps and muscle pains. It is also being used as a remedy for common cold, tapeworm, headaches, dysentery and even rheumatism.
There are also reports claiming that Wormwood is an effective and natural aphrodisiac. Thus, instead of using artificial aphrodisiacs that are not only expensive but risky as well, use Wormwood instead (or damiana).---
Medical benefits and uses---Tonic, stomachic, febrifuge, anthelmintic.
A nervinetonic, particularly helpful against the falling sickness and for flatulence. It is a good remedy for enfeebled digestion and debility.
Those who want milder effects of Wormwood may smoke it instead of ingesting it. The effect is quicker but it is also shorter. Hence, this method of use is recommended to those who have headaches, common colds or mild rheumatism.
To those who need to experience Wormwood's effect longer; it is advised that they make a tea out of it. Soak one teaspoon of Wormwood to a cup of hot water. Let Wormwood tea cool and then drink. It can instantly relieve moderate to severe pain and will also create a calming and relaxing feeling.
---Preparations---Fluid extract, 1/2 to 1 drachm. Wormwood Tea, made from 1 OZ. of the herb, infused for 10 to 12 minutes in 1 pint of boiling water, and taken in wine glassful doses, will relieve melancholia and help to dispel the yellow hue of jaundice from the skin, as well as being a good stomachic, and with the addition of fixed alkaline salt, produced from the burnt plant, is a powerful diuretic in some dropsical cases. The ashes yield a purer alkaline salt than most other vegetables, except Beanstalks and Broom.
The juice of the larger leaves which grow from the root before the stalk appears has been used as a remedy for jaundice and dropsy, but it is intensely nauseous. A light infusion of the tops of the plant, used fresh, is excellent for all disorders of the stomach, creating an appetite, promoting digestion and preventing sickness after meals, but it is said to produce the contrary effect if made too strong.
The flowers, dried and powdered, are most effectual as a vermifuge, and used to be considered excellent in agues. The essential oil of the herb is used as a worm-expeller, the spirituous extract being preferable to that distilled in water. The leaves give out nearly the whole of their smell and taste both to spirit and water, but the cold water infusions are the least offensive.
The intensely bitter, tonic and stimulant qualities have caused Wormwood not only to be an ingredient in medicinal preparations, but also to be used in various liqueurs, of which absinthe is the chief, the basis of absinthe being absinthol, extracted from Wormwood. Wormwood, as employed in making this liqueur, bears also the name 'Wermuth' - preserver of the mind - from its medicinal virtues as a nervine and mental restorative. If not taken habitually, it soothes spinal irritability and gives tone to persons of a highly nervous temperament. Suitable allowances of the diluted liqueur will promote salutary perspiration and may be given as a vermifuge. Inferior absinthe is generally adulterated with copper, which produces the characteristic green color.
The drug, absinthium, is rarely employed, but it might be of value in nervous diseases such as neurasthenia, as it stimulates the cerebral hemispheres, and is a direct stimulant of the cortex cerebri. When taken to excess it produces giddiness and attacks of epileptiform convulsions. Absinthium occurs in the British Pharmacopoeia in the form of extract, infusion and tincture, and is directed to be extracted also from A. maritima, the Sea Wormwood, which possesses the same virtues in a less degree, and is often more used as a stomachic than the Common Wormwood. Commercially this often goes under the name of Roman Wormwood, though that name really belongs to A. Pontica. All three species were used, as in Culpepper's time.
Wormwood stimulates the brain to create a calming and relaxing effect. It was also reported to relieve discomforts caused by common cold, pinworms, tapeworm, headaches, dysentery and rheumatism. This is why it became well known as a light anaesthetic. Rather than using synthetic medicines, the use of Wormwood is highly advised because it is just as effective and since its 100% natural, then there are less adverse side effects.
Side effects
When taken with alcohol or in large quantities, Wormwood might cause mild to severe hallucinations. As stated above, it is the main ingredient of absynthe.
Legality
The use of Wormwood is now legal all over the world thanks to the modern tests that disproved its alleged adverse effects and proved its medical benefits. Because Wormwood is now legal, a lot of farms has been growing it but to make sure that what you have is the most potent strains of the plant that are grown under the strictest conditions, It is important to buy it only from a reputable source.
WORMWOOD, ROMAN
Botanical: Artemesia pontica Family: N.O. Compositae
Part Used---Herb.
Roman Wormwood (Artemesia Pontica) is not indigenous to this country, being a native of Southern Europe. It grows about the same height as the Common Wormwood, but has smaller and more finely cut leaves, the segments being narrower, the upper leaves more resembling those of Southernwood; the leaves are white with fine hairs on both upper and under surfaces. The flowers, which blossom in July, are numerous, at the tops of the branches, and are darker and much smaller than those of Common Wormwood.
This is the most delicate though the least strong of the Wormwoods; the aromatic flavour with which its bitterness is mixed causes it to be employed in making the liqueur Vermuth.
Medicinally, the fresh tops are used, and also the whole herb, dried. Much of the A. Pontica in commerce is A. maritima.
Culpepper considered the Roman Wormwood 'excellent to strengthen the stomach.' Also that 'the juice of the fresh tops is good against obstructions of the liver and spleen. . . . An infusion of the flowering tops strengthens digestion. A tincture is good against gravel and gives great relief in the gout.'
Dr. John Hill says of this plant that it is the 'most delicate, but of least strength. The Wormwood wine, so famous with the Germans, is made with Roman Wormwood, put into the juice and work'd with it; it is a strong and an excellent wine, not unpleasant, yet of such efficacy to give an appetite that the Germans drink a glass with every other mouthful, and that way eat for hours together, without sickness or indigestion.'
WORMWOOD, SEA
Botanical: Artemesia maritima Family: N.O. Compositae
Description
Synonym---Old Woman. Parts Used---Young flowering tops and shoots. Habitat---In Britain it is found as far-as Wigton on the West and Aberdeen on the East; also in north-east Ireland and in the Channel Islands.
The Sea Wormwood, in its many variations of form, has an extremely wide distribution in the northern hemisphere of the Old World, occurring mostly in saltish soils. It is found in the salt marshes of the British Isles, on the coasts of the Baltic, of France and the Mediterranean, and on saline soils in Hungary; thence it extends eastwards, covering immense tracts in Southern Russia, the region of the Caspian and Central Siberia to Chinese Mongolia.
Description---It somewhat resembles Artemesia Absinthium, but is smaller. Thestems rise about a foot or 18 inches in height. The leaves are twice pinnatifid, with narrow, linear segments, and, like the whole plant, are covered on both sides with a white cottony down. The small, oblong flower-heads - each containing three to six tubular florets - are of a yellowish or brownish tint; they are produced in August and September, and are arranged in racemes, sometimes drooping, sometimes erect.
Popularly this species is called 'Old Woman,' in distinction to 'Old Man' or Southernwood, which it somewhat resembles, though it is more delicate-looking and lacks the peculiar refreshing scent of 'Old Man.'
Dr. Hill says of this species:
'This is a very noble bitter: its peculiar province is to give an appetite, as that of the Common Wormwood is to assist digestion; the flowery tops and the young shoots possess the virtue: the older Leaves and the Stalk should be thrown away as useless. . . . The apothecaries put three times as much sugar as of the ingredient in their
